A Mundane Turn In The AIPAC Case--And The Absurdity Required To Reach It

The current issue is rather mundane, but read to the end to get a picture of the absurdity that had to be pursued to reach this point.

Judge allows ‘classification czar’ in AIPAC case

The judge in the classified information leak case against two former AIPAC staffers is allowing the Bush administration's former "classification czar" to testify for the defense.

William Leonard, who headed the Information Security Oversight Office, could be the most damaging defense witness when Keith Weissman, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former Iran analyst and Steve Rosen, its former foreign policy chief, go to trial for allegedly relaying classified information to colleagues, journalists and Israeli diplomats.

Lawyers for Rosen and Weissman sought the testimony of Leonard, who over saw classification procedures from 2002-2008, and his predecessor, Steven Garfinkel, because both men have argued in retirement that the government overclassifies. Their expertise could undermine arguments that the information allegedly handled by Rosen and Weissman met the standards of "national defense information," which federal Judge T.S. Ellis III has said the government must prove.

Prosecutors sought to bar Leonard from the witness stand, saying that his testimony would violate a law banning government officials who have been substantially involved in an investigation from bearing witness for any party contesting the United States in court case arising out of the investigation.

In an order released Wednesday, Ellis summarily dismissed prosecution claims that an hour-long conversation prosecutors had with Leonard in 2006 qualified as "substantial involvement" in the investigation as defined by the law.

Read the whole thing.

Now this is only the latest development in one of the odder aspects of Leonard's testimony that goes back to September. Back then, Leonard's attorney squashed the subpoena requiring him to testify in order to allow the judge to force Leonard to testify:

In an unusual maneuver designed to evade a threat of government sanction, a key defense witness in the trial of two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who are charged with mishandling classified information last week moved to quash (pdf) a subpoena summoning him to testify at their upcoming trial.

J. William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security Oversight Office, indicated he was prepared to testify that the classified information at issue did not meet the standards for national security classification. If so, the defendants could not have violated the law by receiving and transmitting the information without authorization. Not only would they not be guilty, there would have been no crime.

But prosecutors objected to Mr. Leonard’s testimony, arguing that he should not be permitted to appear since he briefly consulted with prosecutors about the case while he was still a government employee in 2006. In a March 31 motion (pdf), they even suggested that he could be liable to a year in jail if he testified for the defense.

In the normal course of events, government officials are sometimes threatened with sanctions if they refuse to testify in a judicial or congressional proceeding. But in the topsy-turvy world of the AIPAC case, Mr. Leonard is threatened with sanctions if he does testify.

To forestall that eventuality, Mr. Leonard was formally subpoenaed (pdf) by the defense on July 25. His attorney, Mark S. Zaid, then moved to quash the subpoena on August 28, in the expectation that the court would issue an order compelling Mr. Leonard to testify. Such an order would serve to shield him against the threatened sanctions from the prosecution.

The fact that the judge has now ruled on permitting Leonard to testify would imply that the judge did issue the order compelling Leonard to appear.

Maybe we can look forward to seeing this case finally resolved.

Technorati Tag: AIPAC.